First Team News

Blues hit the road on national service

Tue 28 Feb 2012, 10:16 AM

Nigel de Jong Micah Richards

A host of Manchester City stars are scattered far and wide this week in a string of international friendlies.

The big news on the England front was the return to the fold of Micah Richards, who played just once under Fabio Capello but he was in Stuart Pearce's first squad when the former City boss stepped in to replace the recently departed Italian.

The withdrawal through injury of Kyle Walker improves Micah's chances of winning cap number 13, with fellow Blues Joe Hart, Gareth Barry, James Milner, Joleon Lescott and Adam Johnson also in with a shout of facing the Netherlands. Unsurprisingly Nigel de Jong is in the Dutch squad.

Sergio Aguero and Pablo Zabaleta's Argentina face Switzerland in Berne, while Edin Dzeko will also be in the land of the cuckoo clock to face south American opposition. Bosnia-Herzegovina have a prestige friendly against Brazil on neutral ground in St Gallen, and in another interesting match-up France will play Germany in Bremen with Samir Nasri in the French squad.

Aleks Kolarov could follow up his man-of-the-match display against Blackburn Rovers with another international cap when Serbia travel to Cyprus to take on Armenia on Tuesday, followed by Cyprus themselves in Nicosia a day later - Roberto Mancini will no doubt be hoping the left-back is not over-used with an important Barclays Premier League fixture looming on Saturday.

David Silva is the Spanish squad for the world champions' clash with Venezuela in Malaga, while Stefan Savic returns to his homeland for Montenegro's game against Iceland. Kolo and Yaya Toure could be back in international action just over a fortnight after their defeat in the African Cup of Nations final, with a friendly against Guinea in the Ivorian capital of Abidjan.

Vincent Kompany travels to Crete, where the capital city of Heraklion plays host to Greece against Belgium but Mario Balotelli will not be in action after coach Cesare Prandelli surprisingly omitted him from Italy's friendly with the USA in Genoa.

Keeping checking mcfc.co.uk for news on how our lads have fared on international duty.